Otello

TUTTO VERDI – this edition to mark the Verdi bicentenary sets standards by which all similar projects will be judged. It includes all twenty-six operas by the greatest Italian stage composer, together with his immortal Requiem, all of them in definitive performances. “This is how Verdi should be played” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on TUTTO VERDI

Verdi was over seventy when he set about raising Italian opera to a whole new level, succeeding magnificently in combining two traditions in his penultimate masterpiece. Based on Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, Otello not only sums up the history of Italian opera since Rossini but at the same time looks far into the future.

Falstaff

TUTTO VERDI – this edition to mark the Verdi bicentenary sets standards by which all similar projects will be judged. It includes all twenty-six operas by the greatest Italian stage composer, together with his immortal Requiem, all of them in definitive performances. “This is how Verdi should be played” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on TUTTO VERDI

Based, in part, on Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff is Verdi’s last work for the stage – and only his second comic opera. And yet the humour in this multilayered masterpiece is distinctly wry, for all the main characters exhibit an array of human weaknesses that are implacably exposed by Verdi and his librettist Arrigo Boito.

Aida

TUTTO VERDI – this edition to mark the Verdi bicentenary sets standards by which all similar projects will be judged. It includes all twenty-six operas by the greatest Italian stage composer, together with his immortal Requiem, all of them in definitive performances. “This is how Verdi should be played” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on TUTTO VERDI

Commissioned by the Viceroy of Egypt, Aida is Verdi’s only opera to be written for a non-European house. Although set in Egypt in the 19th century BC, it borrows only superficially from the current fashion for exotic subjects but on closer examination emerges as an implacable indictment of nationalism and imperialism.

Jedermann

Seit seiner Salzburg-Premiere im Jahr 1920 gehört Hugo von Hofmannthals Jedermann alljährlich zu den Höhepunkten der Festspiele, und alle Vorstellungen sind Monate im voraus ausverkauft. Der Salzburger Dom bildet die prachtvolle Kulisse für das Spiel über den reichen Bürger Jedermann, an dessen Tür der Tod klopft, um Rechenschaft von ihm zu fordern. Die erste Neuinszenierung seit 12 Jahren des Salzburg-Klassikers schlechthin wurde von Publikum und Kritik begeistert aufgenommen. Besonders gelobt wurde der fast schon konterrevolutionäre Weg des Regieteams Julian Crouch und Brian Mertes, ihrem Jedermann wieder Wildheit, Spaß und urkomische Natürlichkeit einzuhauchen. Burgschauspieler Cornelius Obonya in der Titelrolle und der legendäre Peter Lohmeyer als Tod gelten bereits jetzt als Idealbesetzungen. “Ein Triumph” Die Presse

Andris Nelsons “From the New World”

It isn’t often that a young conductor excites audiences and stirs up critics to the extent that Andris Nelsons does. In this case, the young Latvian headed the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the orchestra of his mentor and fellow countryman Mariss Jansons, in a high-profile programme that calls for utmost virtuosity as much as it does for poetic zest: “From the New World” was the motto of this sweeping concert that received rave reviews and cemented Nelsons’ status as the “real deal” among up-and-coming conductors. Pairing Dvorák’s New World Symphony with other salient works from the 20th and 21st centuries that were also conceived on US soil, the event proved to be a triumphant showcase for all involved. “One rarely exper iences such a na tural connect ion between conductor and orchestra … Andris Nelsons and the Bavarian Radio Orchestra are a sensation!“ Stuttgarter Zeitung